5 Tips on How Smaller Healthcare Organizations can Bolster Security

Making employees an asset, adopting a cybersecurity policy, securing the weakest link, choosing cloud technology and making IT a priority are some of the ways by which smaller organizations can improve security

With mergers and acquisitions becoming trendy in the healthcare sector, smaller organizations are finding it difficult to cope with various healthcare challenges.

As the healthcare landscape continues to transform, M&A is likely to become a common occurrence and a ubiquitous strategy for smaller organizations.

As these provider organizations continue to pursue buyout offers, they must begin thinking about their actual value to a larger company. When two companies merge, their strengths and weaknesses get married. If those weaknesses are too large or too unpredictable, the partnership often crumbles.

The due diligence process to determine those weaknesses is already exhaustive. But now that cyber crime has risen to the top of the threat landscape, evaluators are making it a prime focus.

This is a concern across all industries, but because healthcare deals with so much sensitive data, is particularly an urgent issue. Any sort of data breach would expose the parent company to HIPAA fines, lawsuits and a tarnished reputation. Therefore, cybersecurity issues may singlehandedly predict the success or failure of a merger.

The Office for Civil Rights recorded about 350 healthcare entities fell victims to a breach in 2017, and those numbers might be exceeded in 2018 for two reasons.

First, smaller healthcare entities have limited resources to dedicate to cybersecurity. With so many competing budget demands, cybersecurity gets pushed to the bottom of their list.

Consequently, and second, this turns healthcare into attractive targets for hackers. Medical information is some of the most lucrative stolen data because it can be exploited in many ways and sticks with a person for life. Profit-driven hackers know this and go looking to steal it specifically. And because cybersecurity is often lacking, they encounter little resistance along the way.

The looming threat of a future attack is just as damaging as the lingering effects of a previous one. Until the gaps in a security strategy are closed, a company will look like a risk instead of an asset.

Small and mid-sized healthcare organizations may have minimal cybersecurity budgets, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be effective. A number of sound security strategies cost little or nothing. By focusing resources in the right areas, it’s possible to defend against a majority of attacks. And by taking a targeted approach, it’s possible to demonstrate security savvy to potential buyers.

Here are some guidelines that would help smaller organizations prevent against cybersecurity attacks:

Make employees an asset.

Human error is a major contributor to data breaches. Educating employees on the risks involved and training them on how to spot and avoid red flags helps to minimize the threat. Informed employees can also identify scams and attacks that security technologies may miss.

Adopt a cybersecurity policy

Adopting plans and protocols ensures that every decision or action follows cybersecurity best practices. That leads to stronger security while also helping offices respond quickly and effectively I case of a potential or viable threat.

Secure the weakest point

The email inbox is both a repository of sensitive data and an entry point into a network. That is why the vast majority of attacks are targeted at inboxes or the data traveling between them. A simple solution like email encryption ensures that even if data is stolen, it has no value in the hands of hackers.

Choose the cloud first

Cloud-based technologies can offer improved security at a lower cost. They also secure data with minimal need for input or oversight. This is ideal for smaller healthcare organizations that have limited resources to invest in cybersecurity.

Accept IT as a priority

One of the reasons why cybersecurity has suffered in healthcare is that it is viewed as an IT issue rather than as a business priority. Now that the consequences of a breach are clear for all to see, it’s time to change that thinking. Once organizations see this issue as an existential threat, they can focus more resources where they’re actually needed.

The central mission of healthcare is to protect the patient. That means protecting the body from illness and injury. It also means protecting the patient from exposure and exploitation. Securing data is an ethical obligation, and for the companies of today and tomorrow, it’s also a business necessity.